


Overwhelmed

by suika (amater_asu)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Haikyuu AU?, Humor, M/M, They're just dumb omg, Volleyball AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 08:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13948065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amater_asu/pseuds/suika
Summary: Kyungsoo sees their friendship in a platonic kind of way but when Jongin does things that send his mind frantic, he finds himself having second thoughts.





	Overwhelmed

Kyungsoo is a genius, both in sports and his studies. He’s good looking and attractive. His hair is dark; his skin is fair and he has a pair of intimidating dark blue eyes. He’s never one to express his thoughts and reflect them through his face—that explains why he always has a straight face on.

But maybe, maybe that’s what all the girls are swooning over him for.

“Will you accept my feelings?”

A girl—Kyungsoo can’t remember her name despite her having mentioned it before but she seems to be in the same class as him—holds out a pink envelope towards him. He looks down and back up to stare at the girl’s hung low head. After a few seconds of silence, the girl finally has the courage to look up at Kyungsoo’s face and notice a clear, obvious rejection in his eyes.

“I—I’m sorry,” she squeaks, bowing down, “I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Kyungsoo goes back to practice his serves, not even bother to at least say a word to hopefully comfort the girl who’s making her way out of the gym with sagged shoulders. He closes his eyes after he serves; the ball flies right over the net and hits the wall at the other side of the gym. He thinks what’s done is done and it’s too late to go after the girl and apologize. The girl will get over him eventually, right? Isn’t that what having a crush all about?

“Oy, Kyungsoo!”

A voice startles him back to reality. He turns around to find Jongin standing in the doorway, looking as ready as ever to practice. Well, at least that’s what the plain white shirt, black shorts and shoes are telling him. He has the feeling that what follows after that loud _Oy, Kyungsoo!_ is going to be something he definitely despises to hear.

“What’s it about this time?” the tanned boy scrunches his nose, “I think she’s really upset,”

“Mind your own business.” he says with annoyance heavy in his voice.

Jongin gasps in disbelief. “Wha—you serious, dude? I was just asking, okay,”

If there’s anything Kyungsoo’s not good at doing, it’s probably making friends. He doesn’t know exactly when it started but he thinks it was when he graduated from elementary school. People started to badmouth him due to his intimidating and dark look. Not to mention, his bad temper. That’s why Kyungsoo never bothers to tell them the truth when they don’t even bother to get to know more about him.

But Jongin’s different.

And the thoughts always set the alarm inside Kyungsoo’s head off.

“Alright, listen folks!”

Kyungsoo doesn’t know when Coach Hyunkyun arrived but he turns around when he hears his voice and sees that everyone’s gathered around him, ready to listen to everything their coach has got to say. He makes his way over and sits on the floor beside Jongin—the empty space for him is always next to Jongin, it seems. It might be just his imagination but he feels like they’re sitting too close to each other that their knees touch.

Of course, Kyungsoo never shows that he _notices_ everything the taller guy does around him. It seems that Jongin is still as oblivious as ever. Sometimes, it makes him want to rip his hair off.

“We’re going to have a practice match against Chungdam next week,” Coach Hyunkyun says, looking around to stare back at every one of them. He looks glad that this time, Jongin isn’t being too noisy and everyone is paying attention, even Jongdae.

Kyungsoo can’t help but feel curious as to how the others react to the seemingly good news. He looks around to see it himself. Sitting across from him is Minseok, looking as nervous as ever. He’ll surely bite his fingernails off if he keeps doing that. Beside him is Jongdae who shows no sign of anxiety—in fact, it’s the opposite. Yixing stares thoughtfully into the air and he’s never seen their captain looking so serious. Tao looks kind of startled and Sehun is still bored out of his mind.

It doesn’t take much effort to know that Jongin reacts pretty well to this. Kyungsoo doesn’t need to look at his face to know that the taller guy is all fired up upon hearing the news their coach has just broken. But something inside him keeps telling him to _look, you have to look at him!_ But of course, Kyungsoo resists it at all cost. He won’t be easy to break. No, not when—

“Doesn’t that mean we’re going to go up against The Great King?!” Jongin yelps loudly, almost jumping in place.

 _Oh my god,_ Kyungsoo says to his poor self. _Tell me I’m not staring._

“…soo?”

He vaguely hears the sound of his heart thundering in his ears before he snaps back into reality and sees that everyone’s getting ready for practice. He’s standing at the side of the court, he realizes after a while. Jongin is waving his hand in front of his face and he slaps it away. The taller guy retracts his hand like it’s been burned and yells at him for it. Of course, he’ll do that. It seems that they do nothing but argue for every chance they get.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

 _I don’t know,_ Kyungsoo says bitterly to himself.

“None of your business,” he never intends to sound that mean, okay.

Jongin shrugs as he turns around to make his way over to join Sehun in the middle of the court. He expected Jongin to go all _‘you look so distracted that’s why I asked what the hell is wrong but you slapped my hand away and it hurts, y’know! You better get your shit together because we’re going to practice hard today!’_ not turning away from him without any argument just like that. It makes him insane to think that he’s starting to sound like Sehun too.

He drags his feet into the court but there seems to be no one who notices. He suddenly feels sick at his stomach and he wonders if Jongin’s disease is contagious because really, he just wants to crouch down and bawl.

“Make sure to toss to me, Kyungsoo!”

There. He feels his stomach twist. Like something inside of it comes to live and decides to screw everything up for him. He finds himself breathless as those words echo over and over again inside his head like a broken tape. It’s not right. He knows it’s not right. Something’s wrong with him, or rather, his brain. And stomach.

“Suho hyung,” Kyungsoo raises his hand and suddenly the spotlight is turned to him. “I’m not feeling well. Would you let me skip practice today?” he might sound like trying to reason himself out of this but he’s sure as hell he’s feeling sick. He even breaks cold sweat and his knees have turned really weak that he feels like he’s going to collapse soon.

Suho looks thoughtfully at him for a really long time before Yixing elbows him and speaks up. “You look so pale, Kyungsoo. It’s okay, don’t push yourself too hard.”

 _He’s an angel,_ Kyungsoo thinks.

He nods gratefully and goes over to stuff his things into his bag. Everyone goes back to the point of warming up before Kyungsoo stopped them except for Jongin who stares at him intently from the middle of the court. He just hopes he doesn’t look like he’s trying to avoid meeting his gaze. But he definitely is. And he finds no reason why.

He’s secretly thankful that Jongin makes no effort whatsoever to ask him or follow him to the infirmary because if he does, he’ll probably die right away.

\---

Jongin stares off into the distance. The clear, blue sky displayed before his eyes is one of his favorite sceneries. It’s after practice and everyone’s waiting for Jongdae who takes the longest time to clean himself up in the washroom. Jongin chooses to wait outside because it’s so cramped inside and he can’t bear the hot air around the room. He wishes they don’t have practice during summer but they need to practice hard to make sure they win the next winter tournament.

It gets him thrilled just by thinking about the match against Chungdam. They weren’t able to snatch the last score before the alarm buzzed, signaling that the match had ended. He realizes he was so engrossed in the idea of winning that he didn’t really focus on the process. Regret filled his heart as soon as he saw the others started to cry. He cried himself.

“Man, why is this place so small?”

Jongin turns his head to see Sehun and Tao is trailing after him. He’s complaining to himself as he struts down the stairs, heading towards the gym.

“Go home if you want to have a room big enough for you and your freaky lanky self!” Jongin shouts loud enough for Sehun to hear but the other chooses to ignore him and it’s Tao who stops to stick his tongue out at him instead. Jongin makes a face when they disappear into the gym.

Sehun’s never been good with making friends and it reminds him a certain someone. Kyungsoo and Sehun have never been good with each other either. Neither of them is bound to admit defeat and they’re very stubborn. Jongin’s glad he doesn’t always have to handle the two of them at once since Suho’s the captain. He doesn’t know why he feels like he’s responsible for Kyungsoo even though he knows the smaller guy will surely get mad if he says it directly to him.

“Up for the bath?”

Jongin pushes himself against the railings to stand up and see Minseok standing in the doorway with a towel draped around his shoulders. He raises an eyebrow. “Isn’t Jongdae hyung still using the washroom?” he asks, clearly confused.

Minseok laughs. “He should be done by now,” then he proceeds to head down and disappears into the gym.

Suho, Yixing and Minseok are the only third-years in the team and they’re going to face the entrance exams soon but Jongin’s not ready to let them go yet. It’s them who give him encouraging words whenever he feels down. Even though there are still second-years—Jongdae, Baekhyun and Chanyeol—but he still feels like the team will not be the same without them.

Jongin shakes his head to erase the unwanted thoughts off his head. It’s been an hour but Kyungsoo’s not back yet. He didn’t find the smaller guy’s training bag in the room so he thinks he must’ve gone home. But why, though, he doesn’t know. There’s something off with the way the smaller guy excused himself out of practice. And it seems like he’s avoiding him.

His relationship with Kyungsoo is never a good one too. They screamed off at each other’s face the first time they met, declaring that they would certainly be the one who win no matter how many matches they stand in the court for. Until Jongin found out that Kyungsoo’s really good at volleyball, he swore to himself that he’ll defeat him someday. But they enrolled into the same high school and went for the very same volleyball club. Jongin wonders if fate has brought them together. But they were supposed to be enemies.

Jongin no longer knows what to name of their relationship.

“If you’re looking for him, he’s at the infirmary right now,” A voice says behind him but it doesn’t take a genius to know to whom said voice belongs.

Jongin turns around and leans back against the railings. He rubs the back of his head and laughs awkwardly when he sees Yixing staring at him. “I-I’m not looking for him,” he says around a forming lump inside his throat. It’s getting hard to breathe.

When he doesn’t get any response from the older guy, he sighs. “I think he’s mad at me,”

Yixing raises an eyebrow at his conclusion. “For what?”

Jongin clears his throat. “For missing his tosses?” he hesitantly answers.

The older guy shakes his head and smiles. It makes Jongin’s stomach churn because he knows there’s something else that comes with this matter and the fact that he doesn’t know what it is drives him crazy.

“Do you think he’ll get mad simply because of that?” Yixing stares at him, amused.

 _He got so angry when I spiked the ball to the back of his head, though. He even silent treated me._ But Jongin didn’t say it out loud because he knows the smaller guy wouldn’t get mad over something so trivial. Sure, he has a bad temper and he’s one of the reasons it’s getting worst but Kyungsoo can’t fool him. It’s something else that he can’t quite put his fingers on. If Kyungsoo was not mad, he would have shouted at him for being so clumsy and half-assed.

“…no,” he opts to say instead.

Yixing puts a hand on his shoulder. “Go after him,”

“I don’t think he’s in the mood to see my face right now,” Jongin scrunches up his nose.

When Yixing glares, Jongin is startled that he quickly dashes off, down to the infirmary.

\---

Jongin shrinks deeper into his seat. He’s physically in class but his mind is wondering off somewhere else. He no longer listens to Mr. Shiota, their English teacher, as his voice has now blended into the background. All he can hear is the questions he asks himself in his mind, the ticking of the clock in the class which goes in rhythm with the tapping sounds it makes when his pen hits the table.

Kyungsoo is absent today.

He has a half mind to call the older during lunch time later, just to make sure he didn’t injure himself or something but he can’t be sure if the older will pick up in the first place. Kyungsoo gets irritated easily and often snap at innocent people (oh, poor souls) but it’s not like the older male hates him. That much he can tell from the way the older’s eyes sparkle every time Jongin doesn’t miss his super-hard-and-fast tosses.

Then _why,_ though?

When Jongin finally arrived at the infirmary yesterday, Kyungsoo was no longer there. He asked the nurses in charge there only to find that the older male had left an hour ago with a cute, short-haired blonde. He couldn’t help but question why his chest tightened upon hearing the newly discovered information. It was getting dark when he left for home. He sped into the cold night air, letting his feelings out as he pedaled as hard as he could.

Maybe it’s his sister.

Jongin repeatedly tries to convince himself that maybe, the blonde is his sister or one of his relatives who just arrived in Japan to pay him a visit or something. Putting his face in his hands, Jongin decides to ask him directly later and hopes that everything will go well without him having the urge to suddenly jump off a cliff or tear his hair out.

Yeah, he should try.

“—Kim Jongin, are you listening?”

It’s when Mr. Shiota throws his chalk across the classroom and hits him point blank on the forehead that he snaps out, legs of his chair scraping against the tiles as he abruptly pulls back and stands up. When he looks around, his classmates are staring up at him while obviously trying so hard not to laugh at how silly the situation is.

Jongin facepalms.

“S-Sorry,” he murmurs, sitting back down with face so red it rivals the color of his Converses.

He remembers those times when he was still new to volleyball. Receiving the ball with his face instead of hands. He feels warmth crawls up to the tip of his ears, sure as hell that his face is turning purple in embarrassment. How’s getting embarrassed in front of your classmates equals the effect of getting a volleyball smacked right into your face?

For now, Jongin doesn’t let himself think about that.

Instead, he shrinks impossibly deeper into his seat and himself, deciding that maybe he’ll listen to Mr. Shiota’s lecture just this once. He thinks he could handle English and who knows, maybe one day it’ll turn into his favorite subject?

But nothing can replace volleyball, though.

\---

“Are you sure he’s absent today?”

Baekhyun asks during lunch and Jongin flinches.

“Well, he’s obviously not in class,” he answers, doesn’t know why he suddenly feels unsure.

There’s a silence and Jongin stills in his spot until he feels Baekhyun’s palm on his shoulder.

“Either he has somewhere else to be or he just doesn’t want to see your face,”

Yeah, it must be— _wait, what?_

He might have an incredulous expression across his face because Baekhyun’s laughing his ass off. The older is clutching onto his stomach as his breath becomes erratic due to laughter. And Jongin can’t understand what kind of situation is this?! Just—what the fuck? He’s pretty sure he didn’t miss even a beat of Baekhyun’s breath when he was talking earlier and now he’s wondering if the older male’s losing it.

“Hyung? You look like you’re going to pass out from lack of oxygen, are you okay?”

“Oh, Jongin,” The older male—but definitely shorter than him—wipes his eyes with his sleeves.

Jongin can feel himself getting irritated. “What? What is it?”

Baekhyun takes a deep breath. He looks like he tries so hard to fight the urge to fall into yet another fit of laughter to Jongin. He pouts, like a child who just got his ice cream snatched away. Can this Hyung be serious just once? For god’s sake, Jongin can feel his patient meter is snapping when the older male still looks like he’s about to burst out—

“He’s here,” Baekhyun says, finally and effectively cutting his mental rants off.

“In the school, I mean. He’s coming. I saw his bike,” the older male continues while shrugging.

Jongin feels his mood gets lifted up, even just a bit. Maybe it’s still too fast to call it a bad day. It’s still long until the day ends and he’s going to use it up to make everything back to normal. Despite being a total jerk just minutes ago, Baekhyun is very dependable and Jongin finds himself still getting used to his daily offensive jokes.

“Seriously? Thanks, Baekhyun Hyung!”

Jongin feels like hugging his Hyung but he doesn’t. Instead, he asks, “Did you have lunch? Want me to buy it for you?”

He sees Baekhyun’s eyes sparkle for a moment before it vanishes and the older shakes his head slightly. He knows the older wants so bad to accept his offer of free lunch but it looks like he already bought it or something. Jongin shrugs. The lunch break’s over soon, though.

“So you had your lunch?” Jongin asks and feels the air around them shift.

He’s suddenly scared.

“Oh, right, where’s Chanyeol Hyung?”

That’s when Baekhyun snaps. The older male has a vein popped out across his temple as he makes his way towards the direction of where the cafeteria should be. He’s wondering why the older male chooses to go when he clearly can just call Chanyeol and tell him to—

—a realization comes upon him and he knows that _Chanyeol is in trouble_. He watches in amusement and mild horror as Baekhyun dashes down the stairs while shouting,

“Where’s my lunch?! I’m going to kill you Park Chanyeol!”

 

When Jongin finds yet no traces of Do Kyungsoo, he stops searching and leans against the wall. He can’t help but wonder if Chanyeol survives Baekhyun’s wrath or he’s going to show up with a red mark across his cheek at the practice later. He giggles at how silly the two of them are and it makes his stomach churn with unknown feelings.

Why can’t he be like the two of them with Kyungsoo?

A gush of cold wind reminds him that he’s out in the open without anything to prevent him from catching a cold. He shivers—despite it being summer—as he looks around the silent rooftop and sighs. He’s skipped so many classes today but Kyungsoo’s still nowhere to be found. No signs of him showing up in one of their classes either (he found out by asking one of their classmates) and Jongin doesn’t know where to look for anymore.

He goes back inside the building with a dejected feelings clogging up in his chest. School’s been dismissed a long time ago and he decides to go back to class to retrieve his bag after receiving a reminder from Suho that practice’s going to start soon.

Practice.

Jongin keeps repeating the word in his mind over and over again as he makes way towards the gym. He walks slowly through the hallways and peeks inside the classrooms just in case somebody decides to stay back just because but he finds nothing more than empty classrooms. It’s so unnaturally cold and windy to be summer season and Jongin almost believes they’re going to have a winter holiday instead of summer—wait, he’s rumbling off again.

He sighs.

He needs to practice to get his mind off things.

But what if Kyungsoo goes to practice?

_Isn’t that what you want, Kim Jongin?_

But he’s not ready to face the older male like this. Not when they need to practice their quicks.

He looks up and sees the gym large doors a few meters in front of him. It’s unusually quiet without the sounds of shoes squeaking against the wooden floor or when the ball hits the walls. It’s weird. He thought he’s late but it seems that everyone’s still not gathered yet. When he looks at the time, it’s 4 PM. He groans. Practice starts in an hour.

That means he’s an hour too early.

He blinks when he realizes that it seems like Kyungsoo’s the one who’s avoiding him. He’s suddenly feeling dejected again. Kyungsoo’s also absence during absence and at the end of it, Jongin dares to ask their coach Hyunkyun regarding Kyungsoo’s whereabouts.

“Hmm,” their coach touches his chin thoughtfully, “I’m not sure he wants me to tell you,”

“Just tell me, please,” Jongin pleads.

Hyunkyun finally nods. “He asked me to go home early because he said he’s been practicing for hours already and he looked slightly in pain,”

Jongin pales. He’s afraid something happened to the smaller guy and he just keeps quiet about it. He knows the smaller like the back of his hand even though they can’t seem to stop fighting. And if something really happens, Jongin hopes it’s not something serious like a major injury or something even worst. Suddenly, Jongin feels the urge to call Kyungsoo.

 

And so, he does. As soon as he arrives home.

But his calls go to voicemail and Jongin decides to call his home instead. Kyungsoo’s mother picks up at the third ring and Jongin lets out a relieved sigh. “Hello, Mrs. Do, I’m Jongin. Is Kyungsoo home?”

“Uhm, Jongin, the truth is he’s not home yet and we’ve been trying to reach him but to no avail,”

Shit. What now?

Jongin turns his head to look at the clock hanging on the living room wall. It’s 9 PM and Kyungsoo’s not home yet. He can’t imagine all sort of things that can happen to a guy if—Jongin doesn’t let himself finish the thoughts. He tells Kyungsoo’s mother that he’ll help her to look out for Kyungsoo and not to be worried because he’s sure he’ll bring Kyungsoo back.

“Thank you so much, Jongin.”

Jongin smiles even though he knows the woman can’t see him. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Do. You can count on me.”

\---

Despite the things he said to Kyungsoo’s mother about him going to bring Kyungsoo back, Jongin’s a nervous wreck. He doesn’t know where to look first and school’s off the list since he’d spent his day to look for him around the school. He’s pretty much clueless but he can’t give up yet. He grabs his jacket and tells his mom that he’ll be back in an hour.

 “Kyungsoo, oh my god—”

The older male rolls his eyes.

Kyungsoo is standing in front of him with a volleyball in his hands. His face is flushed red and he can tell the older has been at it for a while. Jongin opens his mouth but no words come out. He chooses to approach the older male silently and takes the volleyball from him but before he can do anything about it, the ball slips out of his hands. He thinks maybe Kyungsoo looks at him as a dumb person or maybe clumsy. But most definitely dumb.

“You’re okay?” He winces upon hearing his own question.

It’s funny because Kyungsoo looks surprised when he takes a step closer towards him. It might just be his imagination though but he doesn’t miss the faintest hint of blush on his cheeks. And he can feel warmth crawling up his collar, his stomach feels like it’ll burst. He’s grown to be accustomed to the stomachache before the matches but what he feels now is entirely different.

“How’s your stomach?”

Jongin wants to punch himself because really, Jongin? That’s all you can do?

He deflates when Kyungsoo bends down to pick a ball instead of answering. He watches as Kyungsoo walks towards the setter position behind the net and that’s when Jongin’s aware of the _real_ answer. He doesn’t know but he’s suddenly running towards where Kyungsoo has tossed the ball and _damn,_ his reflexes have never responded to a stimulation this fast before. When his palm meets the ball, Jongin feels like he could die out of happiness because he’s got his answer plus, he gets to spike the older male’s toss.

Again.

And it feels sooooo nice.

Jongin closes his eyes as he holds his palm against his throbbing heart.

“You’re still as fierce as ever, I see,”

He turns his head when Kyungsoo speaks and God, how nice it is to hear his voice.

“I guess I’m just too hyped up,” Jongin is breathless.

“About what?” Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow.

Jongin grins.

“Seeing you.”


End file.
